Chase Race & Paws 2 Mile Race

With the snowfall on Friday actually making it to this race was in doubt. I spoke to Joan Friday evening and texted with Rock and Bailey. It was going to be really, really cold in the morning so a few people were having second thoughts. So was I!! LOL Arland on the other hand was pretty confident that the roads would be fine and he was right.
We went to South Side at 6:15 and met up with Joan, Bailey and Cindy C. It looked like this was going to be it. The girls piled into the truck with us except Cindy she was driving since she planned to come straight back and run 15 miles with Brenda, Rock and Lisa.
Just as we were getting ready to leave I got a phone call from Robert saying he was on his way so we waited for him. We were in the big red truck so we had lot's of room and Robert joined the girls in the back seat. I would have given him the front seat but there was no leg room so he was better off in the back.

As is usual Cruiser fashion we arrived in Conway at the race location an hour early. It was really really cold so we decided to pick up our packets and then get back in the truck until time for our warm-up.
We ended up having a great Cruiser turn out. The Davis Brothers, The Clinton family, Aunt Tamara, Karen & Melody it was great to see such a big turn out on such a cold day!!
The Chase race is an excellent race very well organized and they have great goodie bags!

Last year at this race I finished in 18:54 and although I thought it would be great if I could break 18:00 I was really just shooting for 18:00 even. I had Dennis in my head and when the gun went off I started off conservative. I watched everyone surge ahead of me but didn't let it get to me. As I mentioned in my last post I had a rough running week and I was really just hoping to feel good during this race. About a 1/2 mile in I started picking up the pace a little bit and I started passing a bunch of people... that felt great!!! After we hit the 1 mile mark I picked it up a little more and tried to just maintain. I was breathing hard and it wasn't easy but I didn't feel like it was killing me. As we rounded the corner towards the finish line I felt a little fatigued and I thought I was going to slow down, but I found a little bit of something left over and I was able to stretch it out a little at the end. I felt so great when I was finished, I felt like I had run a good race and didn't have any regrets.
Finishing time 17:25
Second place in my age group.

Now was the fun part, going back for Aunt Tamara. Bailey and I headed out to get her and we really didn't have to go that far. She was just ahead of Karen and it looked like they were going to have a foot race. I've seen Karen run before and she has a wicked final kick so I told Tamara she was going to have to pick it up. Well wouldn't you know but Tamara also has a wicked final pick and she was able to stay ahead of Karen and finish just before her.

After the 2 mile race they have a 1 mile race that you can run with your pets. Most people dress their dogs up and it is really just so cute and a lot of fun. Well Mr. Harrison Clinton decided that he wanted to dress up and being the cool mom that she is Jackie made his wish come true. Harry was dressed up in a Monkey costume with a leash. I can not even tell you how precious he was!!
He and Jackie ran the 1 mile race together and Harry had the biggest smile imaginable during at the finsih of the race.
They have a costume contest for the pet's and Harry won fifth place :)

Caitlyn Clinton little speedy gonzales she was 7th femal overall and broke the state record for her age group with a 14:54 finishing time.

After the Costume contest we all gathered together and had some cookies, coffee and snuggle time while waiting for the awards ceremony. The sun was going in and out of the clouds and it would get really cold so we all snuggled together to stay warm.

The Cruisers won lot's of awards!! Josh H. was 7th overall and also won his age group, Bailey won 3rd in her age group, Cindy C. was 2nd place Female Masters, Gary, Joan, Curtis, Marianne, Grace C. Aunt Tamara and myself all also won some kind of award.

I'll post pictures later, now I'm off to go pick up Kylie for a sleep over :)